To grow a rose
by Everett Everfree
Summary: Sometimes trying to keep your son as safe as possible backfires spectacularly. Case in point...


**Hello people! Heres a new story thats been rattling in my head for a while. Enjoy!**

Juniper Arc stared down at Jaune, her precious little darling as he stared resolutely up at her.

"I want my Arc challenge!" He said, a bit of steel in his voice. His short blode hair hung loosly around his round impish face as he tried to look serious.

She bit her lip anxiously as she pondered his request. The Arc challenge was a serious family tradition where a child was given a nearly impossible challenge and was then expected to fulfill it no matter how long it took. The Challenges ranged from killing ten-thousand grim to traveling to every country village and town. While she herself wasn't an arc by birth and therfore never recieved a challenge, her husband's challenge was to live in the grim-lands for five years with no weapons or supplies. He barely made it back intact. Her oldest babies, Merry belle, Annabelle and saphire had all received and passed their challenges with flying colors, breaking all kinds of Arc records.

But now her baby boy was asking, no demanding his challenge. her first instinct was to say no, wrap him up in at least a mile of bubble wrap and lock him in a closet to pretect him from such foolishness. She didn't do this for obvious reasons, seeing as she was currently out of Bubble wrap rolls. Also her husband would kill her for disrupting such a tradition. Seriously, tradition stated that any family member that disrupted a challenge request was to be either thrown out, or killed.

But...

There was also a rule that one could not change the challenge once it was issued. So if she were to give him a safe simple task, he'd never be in danger! Her husband would be furious beyond belief though...

No matter! she thought confidently in her head.

'Ill just make it seem like a huge deal so Jaune wont realize it's been rigged.'

"Alright Jauney, ill give you your challenge!" She said, placing her hand on his small slender shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she began,

" Your arc challenge is to..." she paused as her mind hit a brick wall. what the hell should his arc challenge be?

Her eyes wandered around the rather spacious aqua blue painted living room, desperately looking for something to make into a challenge. After a moment of panic, her eyes fell onto the potted rose vine sitting on the window sill, its many thorn covered vines clinging to the widow sill and ledge, obviously in desperate need of trimming. The rose vine had been an anniversary present from her beloved husband, and had become a beloved part of the family; in her opinion at least.

Quickly marching over to it, she carefully removed a small bulb from one of its many vines and handed it to Jaune.

"Your Arc challenge is to grow this bud into its own plant!' She said, trying desperately to make it sound as if she was giving him an impossible challenge. He looked at the green bud with a mixture of confusion and disappointment.

"That's all? Just grow this into an adult plant? We do that all the time and sell them!" Jaune said, a tinge of frustration evident in his voice as he looked up at her like she was crazy.

'Think Juniper think, your baby needs this!' She thought to herself. Then a brilliant idea came to her in a flash of inspiration.

"I wasn't done yet. For this you cannot water it with ater and ytou cant plant it into soil!" She added on desperately hoping that her little angel would accept it. Fortunately the look of unbridled excitement in his eyes confirmed her wish.

She let out a soft sigh of relief, before her internal celebration was interrupted by Jaune.

"When will you unlock my aura then?"

She froze completely. Dam, she had forgotten about that entirely! Taking a deep breath, she placed both of her hands onto jaunes shoulders and began.

"It is with this solemn vow that Your soul is unbound,

To grow and nurture you,

To hold and uplift you in the best of times and in the worst of times,

To be your sword and shield when you are alone,

To be a shining beacon in the darkness,

I free your soul to forever be beside you."

A bright shining light began radiating from jaune as she finished with the chant.

Sitting down abruptly on the corner chair, she caught her breath after using a suprising amount of her aura to unlock jaunes.

Looking up, she saw jaune staring at his still glowing hands in wonder, the small bud glowing a bit as well. Hmm, she had forgotten about that bud being in his hands still. Though unlocking a plants aura was impossible, seeing as plants didn't have souls.

Probably...

* * *

 **Thank you so much for reading this! I hope you all enjoyed it so far. Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of it so far, good or bad. Have a wonderful day!**


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